Didn't see a thread for this but please merge if there is one. I'm looking forward to fully completing everything on the 1st 2. Not sure how the multiplayer will work but could be interesting.

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Dragon Age 3 Plot, Multiplayer and Concept Art Revealed?

BioWare is polling select fans about Dragon Age 3 with a survey that reveals a whole load of information on the game, say the latest reports.
As well as potential names and plot details, the survey also purports to reveal multiplayer information for the as-yet-unannounced title.
Before you read any more it should be noted that the information below does not represent an official announcement and as such should be treated with a pinch of salt.
According to a summary of the survey, you will play as either a warrior, a mage, or a thief and engage in either direct combat on the battlefield, or political warfare via spies that you can send out to gather information.
There are also a couple of plot synopses providing overlapping details on the game’s storyline. “The great nation of Orlais, the most powerful empire in Dragon Age, tears itself apart in civil war,” says one.
“The stout men and women of Ferelden struggle to recover and reclaim their nation from the horde of vile Darkspawn that lay waste to its lands a decade ago. The Templar order has broken away, claiming the church has become too lax in policing the dangerous powers of the mages. The Mage circleshave rebelled, believing the Templars have become too strict, too zealous in their duties, and too quick to slaughter those who step out of line.
“The world of Dragon Age is one on the brink of collapse, and when a desperate gathering in the name of peace becomes the epicentre of a magical blast that decimates the Chantry's leadership, it becomes clear that someone or something is manipulating events to drive the world into chaos.
“From the ashes of that explosion, something new rises: The Inquisition. As the Inquisitor, it falls to you to build up your power and martial your forces, uncover secrets and build connections across the world. You must explore forgotten spaces, uncover ancient mysteries and uproot those who would destroy the fabric of the world."
Meanwhile, another survery translated from German says: “A portal between the worlds unleashes hords of demons in the land, civil wars rip apart nations and the corruption is limitless. Someone is behind the shadows, drawing the threads which destroy the world. Time has come for the Inquisition.”
“Take the Inquisitor’s cloak and lead the only force able of bringing light into the darkness. Choose the direct method and gather your armies, send spies into the shadows or engage in a political war, make friends and use your connections indirectly: it is up to you how you lead the inquisition.”
“But you’ll have to take lead of it from the beginning. Make your player a rogue, warrior or mage and set up your crew from up to ten complex companions to lead them against those who attack you by systematically spying on, revealing and destroying them.”
A number of different subtitles for Dragon Age 3 were suggested in the survey too, with recipients asked to choose their favourite. Those names were The Breach, Exarch, Inquisition, Inquisitor and Apocrypha.
References to online and co-op modes were also made in the survey, alongside concept art revealing the look of several potential companions. You can find the concept art below.
[via NeoGaf and BioWare Social forums]

UPDATE (3-24-15): Bioware has announced the release of the first DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition, Jaws of Hakkon. The DLC will cost $14.99 and can be purchased via the XBox Marketplace or the PC version via Origin. To celebrate the release, Bioware has sent out a new trailer to give players an idea about the content, location and story behind Jaws of Hakkon.

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Dragon Age: Inquisition - Jaws of Hakkon will reveal the fate of the last Inquisitor and the powerful dragon he hunted. The new content expands the land of Thedas with a massive new playable area covered in mountains and lush forests, where danger lurks in the shadowy undergrowth. As players explore the vertical landscape and dense wilderness fighting off vicious enemies, they will collect legendary armor and weapons before unearthing an ancient secret that could destroy the world.

Four months after its original release and on very short notice, Bioware is providing us today the first DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition. In fact, the lack of any announcement beforehand is almost as surprising as the rather steep price of 15 Dollars, which makes it the most expensive story DLC in the Dragon Age franchise. Naturally, this immediately raises the expectations, especially regarding the content length, as these are almost the price-spheres of Skyrim’s Dragonborn DLC, which set rather high standards.
Read more of Markus Rohringer's Dragon Age: Inquisition - A Sneak Peek at the Jaws of Hakkon DLC.

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Our story starts on the war table. Here we get a new mission that wants to send us to the Frostback Basin, to “yield historic discoveries”. One thing is immediately clear: This expansion is made for players who completed the original story, as the minimum suggested level is 20 and my inquisitor was level 24 after completing more or less all available content of the main game. After this rather generic introduction, things get more specific quite fast. As soon as we arrive, we get introduced to a professor who tells us, that in this area we could find the last resting place of the previous inquisitor, from 800 years ago.
Within the first few minutes we also get in contact with a hostile Avvar faction, with the title-giving name Jaws of Hakkon, which should already tell us that they will play a bigger part in the course of the narrative. In terms of story that’s all I’m going to spoil, so let’s move on to the general first impressions. Already a first look at the map and our journal reveals that Frostback Basin is definitely not the smallest areal of the game; after all there are 5 camps to build and 22 regions to discover. However, at least in the beginning, it feels like just another region. Sure, the forest landscape with those tree platforms and some exotic flora and fauna adds a nice additional touch to the mix we got used to, but it also doesn’t seem to offer anything particularly novel. We are running around like always, collecting our shards and all the other stuff we are stumbling upon. It feels like a region that could have been easily in the main game without standing out.
So far that’s nothing bad, as long as the story and its locations hold up, which we will evaluate in the upcoming review. What Jaws of Hakkon definitely does offer are new challenges. The very first rift you have to close is already stuffed with level 24 demons, and this is only a taste for even stronger enemies. To give you some means of counterbalance, the expansion also introduces Tier 4 schematics. While this definitely gives crafters something to look forward to, this sort of bait content is of course always kind of double-edged. After all you get all this awesome new stuff in the DLC only for the sake of this DLC, and some more which might come in the future, because for the main game it is anyway not necessary.
However, from the glimpse I have caught so far, for fans of the main game, BioWare delivers more of the stuff that you already liked before, so that can definitely be seen as something positive. People who got already kind of bored during the course of the original playthrough will probably not be able to revitalize their love for the game – this I already dare to say even though I haven’t played too much into the story yet. The question if it is worth the money I will only be able to answer in the review that is coming soon. The first experience reports that I stumbled upon were talking about a playing time of somewhere between five to ten hours, so that is already an indicator that the price could be considered at least somewhat steep, especially considering the large amount of “filler” content that Inquisition usually provides in each zone.
Of course it’s not always about length. The Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3 was definitely on the shorter side for the same price, but then again so perfectly paced and with a lot of value for fans of the series and its characters. For now, I have my doubts that the same can be said about Jaws of Hakkon. Stay tuned for our full review in just a few days

Dragon Age: Inquisition : Jaws of Hakkon Review - In the Footsteps of the Last Inquisitor

Posted Apr 07, 2015

Dragon Age: Inquistion is an endless well of discussions. Benevolently received by the press, fiercely defended by its fans and disappointedly condemned by all of those who wanted the game to be something else - opinions couldn’t be more diverse. And now Bioware delivered us the first DLC, Jaws of Hakkon, and all those buried emotions are resurrected, as we get more of exactly those parts which have been the critiques' main target.
Read more of Markus Rohringer's Dragon Age: Inquisition - Jaws of Hakkon Review - In the Steps of the Last Inquisitor.

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Personally, I don’t really find myself in any of those camps. I will honestly tell you, that if I had tested the main game, my score would have been lower than what most of my colleagues ranked it. But I’m also far from condemning it. While I liked the open word aspect and even though I did everything doable because of my completionistic compulsion, I got bored by sealing the hundredth rift and collecting the thousandth shard. Why am I telling you this? Because for me, the main problem was BioWare’s complete inability to combine this open world content with the spectacle-filled story missions – it felt like playing two totally different games in parallel and therefore made the fetch quests feel entirely un-immersive and meaningless. Funny enough, Frostback Basin, the new region of Jaws of Hakkon, might be the first area that manages to give the open world exploring a believable underlying story. However, the bulk of the content of this DLC is exactly this: exploration and fetch quests. Again.
I took me slightly over ten hours to complete the whole expansion, and as I know myself as a comparably slow player, I could imagine that others do it in 2 to 3 hours less. Still, in terms of play time that’s quite good value for the money – in DLC standards, at least. Nevertheless it depends on your expectations if you will find it disappointing or not. There isn’t much “flesh” to it, as the actual story plays only a minor and rather short role. Don’t expect a bunch of dialogues and cutscenes, as there just aren’t many of them. Still, Jaws of Hakkon is far from being some randomly assembled pile of content, presented without any love to details.
Actually, Frostback Basin might be considered one of the most varying and beautiful areas. My adventures led me through a tropic wood with giant trees and exotic birds, up onto frightening high tree camps, over a foggy swamp with huge twisted plant roots and branches and to sun-drenched shores and the cliffs which are home to the Avarr. Also, the design of the region does a good job in making you feel the history beneath your feet. This is the initial reason why you are making the journey there, namely to find out what happened to the last Inquisitor, 800 years ago. Soon you realize that his tale is somehow connected to the friendly Avarr tribe and their hostile cousins, the Jaws of Hakkon.
As far as the story goes, following in the footsteps of the previous Inquisitor is clearly the main focus, and while it provides a feeling of discovering ancient history, the quests are taking this trail-following almost too literally in some cases. As you are discovering the history of somebody else, your own hero and your party fade into the background. There are however some really snappy and entertaining banters going on and at least the character of Scout Harding gets a little bit of spotlight and interaction. While I like the toned-down, subtle way in which you experience this story, I can’t help noticing that again most of the time I did tasks that were hardly connected to the story. If you have the same playing style like me, which means doing all the “unimportant quests” first and keeping the story-relevant things for the end, you will end up running around in the area for six or seven hours to get around two hours of the really interesting stuff.
However, there is more than only fetch quests. Codex-collectors and lore-interested players will find a lot of background information on the region and the Avarr and their history. I really appreciate the amount of thoughts and work the writers of BioWare are putting in establishing a complex background for their world. If you on the other hand are just seeking for a new challenge, then Frostback Basin is also the place to go. Packed with level 24 to 27 enemies, there is now finally a high level region, which you could do either before the final battle or after you finished the game. Without spoiling too much, there are at least two battles that were among the hardest that I fought in Inquisition.
Of course a DLC wouldn’t be complete without some new shiny toys to make it more attractive for potential buyers. Jaws of Hakkon is very generous in that regard by offering a whole new tier of schematics for crafting even more powerful equipment. If my memory serves me right, there aren’t any new visual armor models, but at least the better stats help in overcoming the new challenges. A couple of unique weapons and a new Inquisitor ability add nicely up to the mix.
Overall, Jaws of Hakkon is definitely not a bad DLC, but it also won’t be the one people will remember and talk about for years. It is a tale of nostalgia, of revisit and of missed opportunities. Our hero revisits an ancient place, holding an almost forgotten legend, and we are revisiting a game, most likely untouched for months. And while the Inquisitor has a hard time to find out what happened 800 years ago, I found it similarly difficult to get excited again for continuing the sort of content I was kind of happy to have finished a while ago. Admittedly, the beauty of Frostback Basin made it after all a pleasant trip, but personally I would have wished for something more emotionally involving to get me back into gear. But then again, in my case the same might be true for Dragon Age: Inquisition as a whole.

Dragon Age: Inquisition players can celebrate this coming Tuesday, May 5th with the addition of a free multiplayer expansion for all platforms to the game.

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Included in the expansion are three new agents and a new map, the Ferelden Castle. The Bioware team will be on hand on Tuesday with a special live stream to show off the new expansion DLC.
Find out more on the Dragon Age: Inquisition site.

You know, I really wanted to like Inquisition, but I just cannot get into it. I've tried. Many times. I just can't. In an attempt to compete with Skyrim (which Bioware made clear was a goal from the beginning), Bioware went overboard on the sidequests. So much pointless run and fetch quests. And I'd be fine with that if I could just ignore them, but you need to do them to advance the plot and open up the main plot quests. As such, it just becomes a tiresome game.

I got and was really digging it. But then I just kinda got side tracked with other games and didn't touch it for a good while. Starting playing it again from scratch with a different class and I'm falling in love with it again. And I didn't even like the first 2 dragon age games.

The latest free multiplayer update for Dragon Age: Inquisition has been released for all platforms.

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The DLC, Dragonslayer, brings new maps, dragons to battle, and three new companions including Isabella from Dragon Age 2. In addition, the Black Emporium will enable players to purchase high end gear to become even more epic in the battle for the safety of Thedas.
Check out the video below for more.

Dragon Age: Inquisition players should take note of today's release of the Spoils of the Avvar DLC that includes

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five new Avvar-themed mounts, two sets of armor and some new base Skyhold customization items.
The DLC will set players back $4.99 and is currently available across all platforms where Dragon Age: Inquisition can be played.

Dragon Age: Magekiller will begin in the capitol city of Tevinter, just before the events of Dragon Age: Inquisition. It'll mark the first time Minrathous has been directly depicted in Dragon Age canon, and, as a self-described "research junkie," Rucka says Bioware provided all the necessary details he could hope for. Readers of the series will follow the adventures of two protagonists: Marius, the titular mage hunter, and Tessa Forsythia, his handler. Or, to put it in the terms of roleplaying games, she's the Face of the party.

Rucka says that Marius' character came out of a suggestion from (former) head Dragon Age writer David Gaider to lead Dragon Age designer Mike Laidlaw: "We want the Tevinter Boba Fett." A former Tevinter slave (and a human), Marius was raised and trained to kill mages without using magic himself. Rucka refrained from revealing how he escaped his masters, but promised that it won't remain a mystery forever. Somewhere south of Tevinter, Marius runs into Tessa Forsythia, the estranged youngest daughter of the powerful Forsythia family in Nevarra.

The events of Magekiller begin when Marius and Tessa's burgeoning two-man, mage-killing mercenary outfit is approached by a powerful client for a dangerous new job. Dragon Age fans are familiar with the game's eternal tension between those who can use magic — and are therefore both very powerful and very vulnerable to demonic possession — and those who can't. Rucka is quick to articulate the way it permeates the setting:

I think it's more than obvious that the next Dragon Age is going to take in the North and perhaps even in Tevinter, my hopes personally are that DA4's main character is a former slave who can even become slave master him/herself.

__________________"Social critics don’t mean a thing to me. It’s really easy to ignore them, because I believe in what I’m doing 100 percent. So any naysayers for the public good can just buzz off. They might be a drag for a moment, but after that moment is over, it always ends up being gasoline to my fire." - Quentin Tarantino

I rented DAI from gamefly. Figure I'll skip the first two games, I tried playing DAO back in November but....couldn't quite get into it. Got m EA account linked to the Keep, so I'll be making those choices soon.

I have to agree X Knight that DAO had better choices and you could take a darker path easily in DAO and you also had a risk of loosing characters.

The only character I ever lost in DAI was Blackwall and Sera can get kicked off at any given moment, but also the game never lets me stab anyone. Except the Empress, almost!

__________________"Social critics don’t mean a thing to me. It’s really easy to ignore them, because I believe in what I’m doing 100 percent. So any naysayers for the public good can just buzz off. They might be a drag for a moment, but after that moment is over, it always ends up being gasoline to my fire." - Quentin Tarantino

After playing DAI and going back to the others (I played Legacy after and am replaying Origins), it feels like the game is only 75% done.

I think they improved the Warrior and Rogue classes to be more diverse. The Mage class is ok but the early game is a struggle since you need a lot of points to get some good spells.

The rest of it just feels like it's incomplete. Go watch that E3(?) demo from a couple years ago that's in Crestwood. That was cut but looks more fun than most of the things in the game. There are few non-campaign missions where you have to make a choice. When you do, it feels like it doesn't matter. A lot of quests are MMO-fetch quests of "collect X" or "kill Y."

Crafting is fun but I hate games where loot is RNG. You can go the entire game never finding a good schematic. I think the Black Emporium added some so you can buy them, but money is pretty hard to find in the game.

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

Plot-wise, the game feels like it's missing a third act. After Haven, you pretty much just start beating Corypheus. This is why I wish it was possible for the Inquisitor to die/sacrifice themselves. Even though Corypheus began losing once you took over Skyhold, he still always had to means to achieve his goal.

The best part of the game is the companions, including the advisors. While I miss the Friendship/Rivalry mechanic of DA2, I enjoyed interacting with each of them (except Sera). I actually want to go through multiple playthroughs to have a romance with some of them.

I'm hoping there's some DLC that gives some more answers (and questions) about the lore with the Elven gods, something like an expanded version of Witch Hunt featuring Solas.

I still like the game but I think it's more for the DA fan since the best parts are the companions and integrating more of the lore in the campaign. I'm replaying DAO now so I can import the choices into Inquisition so I have more of an investment.

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Originally Posted by Drz

I have to agree X Knight that DAO had better choices and you could take a darker path easily in DAO and you also had a risk of loosing characters.

Which is why I would have loved to see them keep the "Divine Heretic" ending where you can become Divine as a male Qunari.